Women in
Leadership
Network
A network for women in key leadership
roles in churches across Australia
Women in
Leadership
Network
A network for women in key leadership
roles in churches across Australia
Belong
This network is for women leading, serving and contributing in diverse ways in churches – whether you are volunteering part time to lead the kids ministry, directing the Membership portfolio, serving on parish council or working in admin and communications.
Connect
Meet likeminded women who are making significant contributions in gospel ministry. Share your experiences and insights needed to reach Australia with the gospel.
Mobilise
A springboard to see more women mobilised for gospel ministry. Women face specific challenges and we need to work together to target leadership pipeline blockages and develop solutions.
Our story
Reach Australia (originally Geneva Push) began as a network of church planters with a single focus on establishing new churches across the country to reach Australia with the gospel. As our network and resources have grown we’ve had the capacity to expand our focus to senior leadership of established churches, their spouses, and now men and women in key leadership roles.
With our focus on teams ministry, each year it’s exciting to see more and more women involved in the Reach Australia network. At the 2023 National Conference, 35% of attendees and 37% of workshop speakers were female.
The 2023 Women’s Networking lunch had 130 women attending covering diverse ministry areas including mission, serving, community, hospitality, marketing & communications, maturity, magnification, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, youth and young adults.
Here are just some of the challenges women can face in leadership
Join our network to connect with other women and develop some solutions together.
- Blockages in the leadership pipeline
- Personal confidence – seen in women hearing the voice of their inner critic, comparing with others, or experiencing imposter syndrome
- Juggling ministry with the busyness of life and family responsibilities
- Higher rates of ministry burnout
- The ‘onlyness’ of being the minority or only woman on a team
- Challenging team dynamics
- Awkward and discouraging comments
- Lack of diverse role models within their own church
- The emotional toll of regularly answering questions about women’s roles in the church
- Unclear leadership development pathways
How Reach Australia is supporting women in leadership
Team Development Program
Healthy churches need healthy teams. All working towards the same goal, valuing each other’s perspectives and gifts, having the tools they need to build trust and collaboration and work through any conflict effectively.
In 2023 we piloted a Team Development Program for men and women in leadership roles in churches. Our focus is on building healthy teams and developing effective church leaders, as we see whole church teams working together to make mature disciples of Jesus in increasing number. The program combines cohort intensives, coaching, workshops and monthly professional development.
Coaching
We’ve regularly heard from women in ministry that they would benefit from a mentor or coach, and how important support is for their wellbeing in ministry. This year we’ve started building a national women’s coaching network. It’s monthly one-on-one and group coaching for women in church leadership roles to reflect, have accountability and grow.Â
Our gospel coaching model is helpful for any ministry context. Our Level One training in March each year is the entry point for anyone also considering becoming a coach within the Reach Australia network.
Hear from women in ministry roles across Australia
Meet the team facilitating the network
Jo Gibbs
Consultant
Jo is the Women in Leadership Network facilitator and consults with churches about building healthy teams. She has served cross-culturally and in numerous ministry roles before joining the team at Reach Australia.Â
Amy Nhieu
Administrator
Amy facilitates admin and events for the Women in Leadership Network. She has worked in administrator and executive officer roles over the past 15 years, and has served in church planting.
Natasha Maier
Support raising
Tish connects people who are passionate about seeing women in leadership to be patrons of the network. She has a background in fundraising, digital marketing and student ministry in Slovenia.
Liz Fong
Communications
Liz shares stories from women across the network. She was a primary school teacher and freelance designer before moving into marketing for Reach Australia.
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Resources
Check out the resource library for more practical resources about women in leadership.
Got questions?
The Reach Australia network is made up of over 260+ churches from over 12 denominations. We are a national, reformed and evangelical movement with shared convictions. Our vision is for a nation-wide network of church leaders working together to reach Australia. We are so much better together and to reach Australia for Christ.
The Reach Australia network is made up of over 260 churches of different sizes and structures from over 12 denominations. As a result there is a wide range of church models and incredible diversity in roles for women. Women are serving on teams as Associate Ministers, portfolio Ministry Directors, in ministry support (including admin, comms and graphic design), next generation ministries (young adults, youth and kids), pastoral care, hospitality, operations, and governance. These include part-time and full-time roles, both paid and volunteers.
Our focus on making mature disciples in ever-increasing numbers has led to innovative and new roles being created across the ecosystem purpose areas: Deeply trusts the Word, On Mission, Serves Others, In Community and Loves God. These roles allow for specialisation and depth around personal interests and gifting, and have opened up more roles for women than are often available in a congregational pastoring model. Our emphasis on building team-based ministry and mobilising the whole church for gospel ministry has seen an increasing number of roles for women at different levels of leadership.
